Mother, toddler in car hurt by Menlo Park gunfire

MENLO PARK, Calif. 
A 24 year-old-mother and her 2-year-old boy were hospitalized after a passenger in another car started shooting at the car they were riding in, Menlo Park police said Sunday.

The child was sitting on his mother's lap in the rear passenger seat of a car that had four other adults in it when there was some sort of an altercation with two people in another car around 7:45 p.m. Saturday, said police Cmdr. Dave Bertini.

When the passenger in the second car opened fire with a handgun, the child was shot in the legs and suffered a grazing wound to his head, Bertini said. The mother was also shot in the legs.

Both the child and the mother were taken to Stanford Medical Center, where Bertini said they were listed in stable condition with non-life threatening injuries.

The names of the mother and child, or of the other occupants of the car, have not been released.

Though initial reports indicate that more than 10 shots were fired at the car, none of the other adults riding in it was hit by gunfire.

The shooting is being investigated as possibly gang-related, Bertini said.